1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to armoires, and, more particularly, to armoires constructed within existing closet spaces.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An armoire is generally a large, free-standing wardrobe or movable cupboard having doors and shelves or drawers. Versatile pieces of furniture that originated in Europe more than 500 years ago, armoires can be designed to hold clothing, china, computer equipment, audio equipment, televisions, audio/visual media collections, photo albums, can make itself at home in nearly any room of the house. Regardless of what they might hold, armoires are typically aesthetic focal points. They can be made of many types of solid wood, or laminated materials, to which a plethora of new or antique finishes can be applied, including both stain and paint finishes. In the U.S., where it has become customary to incorporate at least one clothes closet in each bedroom of every home and apartment, armoires have been relatively uncommon. In places, such as Europe, which have still not developed a closet mentality, multiple armoires are found in nearly every residence.
There are two principal problems with closets. The first is that space is typically not efficiently utilized. The second is that closets, as a general rule, are internally unattractive. In addition, closet doors are seldom attractive. Three types of closet doors are commonly used: standard side-hinged, bifold, and sliding. Sliding doors are probably the least attractive. Bifold doors often look cheap. The standard side-hinged doors can be an expensive solid wood door, a cheap hollow-core door, or anything in between.
There are also problems associated with armoires. When used as a closet substitute, an armoire must be at least 25 inches deep so that it may hold coats. Such a depth is considerably greater than the depth of most other pieces of bedroom furniture. Hence, it may be difficult to arrange an armoire so that it is coordinated with other furniture and so that only a minimum amount of floor space on either side of it is made unuseable. An additional problem is the typically high costs of armoires. Because an armoire must be of furniture grade quality on at least three side (i.e., the front and both sides), the cost of manufacture is typically at least as much as furniture of comparable size. Still yet another problem is that most armoires have a footprint that is considerably less than a standard size closet. Thus several armoires might be required as substitutes for a single closet.